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WalterBright • today at 3:40 AM • 3 replies • view on HN

The government heavily interferes in the housing industry. Hence, the higher costs. It's the same for everything the government interferes with - such as education and health care.

For examples:

1. there are 57,000 unoccupied apartments in NYC because city regulations on rents make them unprofitable to rent out.

2. the glacial pace of issuing building permits for burned out homes in LA.

3. the sudden influx of many millions of immigrants pushes up the demand for housing, resulting in higher prices

Replies

throwaway2037 • today at 6:37 AM

    > 1. there are 57,000 unoccupied apartments in NYC because city regulations on rents make them unprofitable to rent out.
The correct quote should be:

    > According to state data, approximately 57,421 rent-stabilized apartments were vacant across New York City
The key term here is "rent-stabilized". And the reasons why they are vacant is much more complex "because city regulations on rents make them unprofitable to rent out". That is simply one category of rent-stabilized apartments that are vacant.
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0c3ca83 • today at 6:08 AM

> there are 57,000 unoccupied apartments in NYC

That's about 2.4% of the total number of rented apartments, and about 1.5% of the total housing stock.

How long do you think those apartments are unoccupied, on average?

What portion of the stock do you think would normally be healthy to have on the market?

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Timon3 • today at 3:56 AM

[flagged]

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